1939 Worlds Fair
| EXPO New York City 1939 | |
|---|---|
Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline photo by Sam Gottscho
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| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Universal exposition |
| Category | Second category General Exposition |
| Name | New York World's Fair |
| Motto | The world of tomorrow |
| Area | 1,202 acres (486 hectares) |
| Visitors | 44,932,978 |
| Organized by | Grover Whalen |
| Participant(s) | |
| Countries | 33 |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| City | New York City |
| Venue | Flushing Meadows–Corona Park |
| Coordinates | 40°44′38.5″N 73°50′39.9″W / 40.744028°N 73.844417°W |
| Timeline | |
| Opening | April 30, 1939 |
| Closure | October 31, 1940 |
| Universal expositions | |
| Previous | Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris |
| Next | Exposition internationale du bicentenaire de Port-au-Prince in Port-au-Prince |
| Specialized Expositions | |
| Previous | Second International Aeronautic Exhibition in Helsinki |
| Next | International Exhibition on Urbanism and Housing (1947) in Paris |
| Simultaneous | |
| Specialized | Exposition internationale de l'eau in Liège |
| Other | Golden Gate International Exposition |
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the 1,216 acres (492 ha) of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (also the location of the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair), was the second most expansive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons. The NYWF of 1939–1940 was the first exposition to be based on the future, with an opening slogan of "Dawn of a New Day", and it allowed all visitors to take a look at "the world of tomorrow". According to the official New York World's Fair pamphlet:
The eyes of the Fair are on the future — not in the sense of peering toward the unknown nor attempting to foretell the events of tomorrow and the shape of things to come, but in the sense of presenting a new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow; a view of the forces and ideas that prevail as well as the machines.
To its visitors the Fair will say: "Here are the materials, ideas, and forces at work in our world. These are the tools with which the World of Tomorrow must be made. They are all interesting and much effort has been expended to lay them before you in an interesting way. Familiarity with today is the best preparation for the future.
Within six months of the Fair's opening, the Second World War would begin, an event that lasted six years and resulted in the deaths of over 50 million people.
In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, a group of New York City businessmen decided to create an international exposition to lift the city and the country out of depression. Not long after, these men formed the New York World's Fair Corporation, whose office was placed on one of the higher floors in the Empire State Building. The NYWFC elected former chief of police Grover Whalen as the president of their committee. The committee included Winthrop Aldrich, Mortimer Buckner, Floyd Carlisle, Ashley T. Cole, John J. Dunnigan, Harvey Dow Gibson, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Percy S. Straus, and many other business leaders.
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